FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 15, 2009
Contact: Anika Mitchell Perkins
(662) 329-7124
aperkins@pa.muw.edu

Senior exit project at MUW more than lights, camera, action

COLUMBUS, Miss. - Completion of her exit project has given high school senior Amanda Reese firsthand knowledge of theater design and production.

Reese, who graduated from New Hope High School on Saturday, was one of a few students who recently completed their senior exit projects at Mississippi University for Women.

As part of her project, Reese spent one day out of the week working with David Carter, MUW assistant professor of theater, this past semester.

She learned about theater design and production, including lighting, costumes, sound and makeup. Reese designed a white model and color model, which are smaller versions of the actual set.

Her responsibilities went beyond the classroom with homework assignments that included cutting out paper figures about two inches tall and half an inch wide.

“It was time consuming, but it taught me to be prepared,” Reese said about her experience. “If he teaches his students like he taught me, they should be great at what they do.”

Carter, who has taught at MUW since 2001, earned his M.F.A. from North Carolina School of the Arts and B.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He has about 10 college students enrolled in his class who help design sets-many familiar to the public including “Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse.”

He said, “I hope that Amanda was able to understand the process needed to actually design a set for the theater. An assumption most people make is that you decide what a set is going to look like and then just build it, but it's not that easy. There's a lot of planning that goes into it, and as we went along, I could see that Amanda understood what that entailed.”

Carter added that Reese was like a sponge during their sessions. “She listened well and took everything in.”

Reese, who is the daughter of Ricky and Bobbie Reese, plans to major in the arts.

For more information about MUW’s program, visit www.muw.edu or email carter a dcarter@as.muw.edu.